From LaBelle, Florida for Hendry and Glades County and the Lake Okeechobee region. Don Browne, editor.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Woody Hanson At Museum December 1

LABELLE, FL. -- Eminent Southwest Florida Historian Woodrow S. “Woody” Hanson will be the guest speaker at LaBelle Heritage Museum’s December Program Meeting at 7 o’clock on Thursday, December 1.

Hanson’s maternal area roots go back five generations to Manuel A. Gonzalez, who was the first civilian inhabitant of Fort Myers after the post was deactivated at the end of the Third Seminole War, and his great grandfather, London born Dr. William Hanson, settled in Fort Myers in 1884.

His grandfather W. Stanley Hanson, dubbed “the White Medicine Man,” was a trusted advisor to the Seminoles in the Everglades and Big Cypress from the early part of the 20th century until his death in 1945. Hanson follows his father’s footsteps in the family real estate appraisal business but is also known as one of Southwest Florida’s most knowledgeable students of area history.

LaBelle Heritage Museum is located at 360 North Bridge Street in the “Downtown LaBelle Historic District.” Parking at the museum itself is limited; however, Rene Curtis Pratt of the Harold P. Curtis Honey Co., immediately across from the museum at 335 North Bridge Street, offers the use of the Curtis Honey House parking lot to attendees at museum evening programs.

Museum speaker programs are open to the public at no charge except for an occasional special program.